~ Jenn in Real (Mid) Life: Cupcakes, Dachshunds & Auntdom, Oh My!

Release the hounds!

Ed & I can’t have kids. It is not that we didn’t want kids, or we simply don’t have kids; we can’t have them. We aren’t really placing blame (it is me) because that doesn’t matter. The official diagnosis was Infertility NOS (in other words no kid for you, we aren’t sure why.)

STOP! No pity, please. We don’t need it. No need to apologize. It is all good. And something that can be discussed at a later time. We have nieces and nephews. They go home, we sleep in, etc., etc. It really is okay. You know why? We have dogs!

I mentioned in the debut post that we have 2 Dachshunds. Oscar is an 11 lb, high anxiety, pain in the ass miniature Dachshund. Otty (pronounced like O.T. I tell you this because I have told my grandma how to say his name for years now and she still calls him Oughty….) is a 23 lb, lazy, mellow, sweet standard Dachshund. The are such incredibly different dogs. And I love them and am sometimes I don’t.

Here is the thing that I have learned by having dogs. They are very much like having children. I truly believe this, and I can see some of you out there are nodding your heads too. Let me tell you, when your friends are telling you a story about their kids, and you are thinking to yourself “Hey, my dogs do that!” DO NOT say that to them. People get very offended when you compare your animals to their kids. Well I can tell you, I have met some of those kids, and my dogs are better behaved (and really they are not that well-behaved, so that is saying something. I’m just sayin’)

Ed & I got Oscar as a puppy nearly a year after we bought our house. Niece #1, was in Kindergarten at the time, and I picked her up from school one day and told her that we were going to a surprise. (I just realized why, when I tell the girls that I have a surprise for them, their response is often “Is it a puppy?” EPIPHANY!!) We picked out this tiny little chocolate & tan puppy from a litter of 5. He was 3 weeks old, and Niece #1 could hold him in her tiny hands. We didn’t get to bring him home for several weeks but I remember that day so vividly.

We had had Oscar just about a year when we started looking for a second dog. This time (and every time from here on out) we were looking for a rescue. I am not going to get preachy here, but seriously there are some amazing rescue dogs (& cats) out there, people. Think about it next time you want a pet. We thought that we wanted another Doxie. We I found this gangly looking standard Dachshund on a local shelter’s website. I called the shelter and was told that he was not good with kids or other dogs, or house trained. Well, he was out.

Fast forward a few weeks, and looking at petfinder.com I see this black & tan standard Dachshund at a rescue group about an hour & half North of us. So after a phone interview, we make the drive up to meet him. Here this scrawny dog is, friendly sweet. Enamoured by Niece #1. He is ours. There was no question about it.

In talking to the rescue group’s foster mom, it turns out that Otty is the same dog that was at the shelter locally. And none of what I was told was true. Well, except the house training thing. When we first got Otty he weighed only 12 lbs. He was the same weight as Oscar at his most sausagey. And to this date, I have no idea why someone did not want to keep this dog.

Oscar turned 6 this last April. We know his exact birthday. Otty is more of a guess. We were told that he was about the same age but we suspect that he is a few years older. Over the years the dogs have gravitated toward their preferred parent. Oscar is a total mama’s boy, and Otty loves Ed more than anything. They are like brothers. Most of the time they are bickering and trying to claim their space. But there are those other moments, fewer but alas my favorite, the ones where they play, snuggle up together, have their Dachshund NASCAR races around the living room. I love those moments.

We had a terrifying period of time nearly 2 years ago, when Otty stopped walking. It was Thanksgiving weekend and he suddenly just couldn’t work his back legs. I don’t remember crying that much in a long time. As much as we love him, back surgery in dogs is incredibly expensive and not really something that we could have afforded. Ed and I were sure that we were going to have to have him put down. (I am tearing up writing about this, ya’ll.) Our vets were so amazing and wanted us to try acupuncture first. Otty was not in pain and seemed content to lay there and be waited on. So we said let’s try this. It took 2 months of weekly treatments but in following January, he stood for increasingly longer periods of time. And then took a few steps. And then as if nothing had ever happened, he started walking again. If I learned nothing from those trying couple of months, it is that I believe in miracles.

So those are my kids. My little one has anxiety, and does not play well with other. My big one loves everyone and is happy to nap with you. They act up, they bark too much and eat toilet paper off the roll when they are bored. But I love them. This is my family. Not quite what Ed nor I thought we would have but I couldn’t ask for more. And when your kids are acting up, just know that I can put my kids in a crate and it is not considered abuse.

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There is something that I am excited about and wanted to share. There is a great event coming up that I have recently learned about. It is GISHWHES (or The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen!) Check it out people :www.gishwhes.com It looks like it could be fun! And it ultimately is for a good cause.

Even if we fail, it only goes up from there. Doesn’t get any lower.

Okay guys! That is enough for today. I have been playing around with the layout of the site. It is a work in progress. Things may change again, who knows. Change is good, right? Right?
I added an option to follow my blog. I would love it if you did.

TA-DA!!

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1 thought on “Release the hounds!”

Oh Jenn…I have ALWAYS compared raising tiny humans to training dogs! Many people have been offended by that statement, but hey, sometimes the truth hurts. If you want them to behave, be they two-legged or four-legged, you’ve got to teach them how 🙂 As for the crate, our behemoth of a dog sees that as his refuge, and my children see it as a cave, fort, jail, or anything else their imaginations come up with, so they are often “locked” in it…shhh, don’t tell 😉